MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th May, 2021) The ransomware group known as Babuk released the full set of 250 gigabytes (GB) of hacked data from the police department in Washington, D.C. on Thursday after negotiations broke down.
"We publish the full data of the police department, including HR, Gang Database, you will find a full range of all data in the amount of 250GB in all parts, this is an indicator of why we should pay, the police also wanted to pay us, but the amount turned out to be too small. Look at this wall of shame, you have every chance of not getting there, just pay us!" the group said in a statement on its website.
The group attached two links to the stolen data to the statement on its website.
The first set of data appeared to be from the human resources department of the Washington police, which included personal information of police officers, personal data as well as pictures of gang members, and other internal documents such as arrest reports.
The second set of data was focused on administrative documents of the police department, including background investigation reports of officers, cell phone lists and good standing letters for different officers.
According to an earlier statement from the DarkSide group, the Washington police department offered to pay $100,000 to the Babuk group as recently as Monday, but the group rejected this offer.
During the negotiations, the Washington police appeared to be ready to deal with the consequences of the data leak, when it made the offer to pay $100,000 in ransom.
"Our final proposal is an offer to pay $100,000 to prevent the release of the stolen data. If this offer is not acceptable, then it seems our conversation is complete. I think we both understand the consequences of not reaching an agreement. We are OK with that outcome," the Washington police said.
In the early stage of negotiations with the Washington police, the Babuk group demanded a ransom payment of $4 million. The police department responded by trying to explain that the department is funded by the city of Washington, D.C. and may have trouble seeking approval on such additional spending.
The Washington police said earlier that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was assisting the investigation into the hacking attack from the Babuk group.
